Honor The Fallen
by Piper Masters
Summary: Shiro couldn't stop staring at the boy in his arms; Keith's eyes were half open, as if the violet orbs were still seeing, still searching for a rescue that wouldn't come in time. Can be read alone or as a sequel to 'Alone I heard their voices'. Dedicated to Ruehoos!


**WARNING; I CRIED WRITING THIS, YOU'LL PROBABLY CRY READING IT. CHARACTER DEATH- DON'T READ IF THAT WILL TRIGGER YOU IN ANYWAY PLEASE!**

 **Can be read alone, or as a sequel to my story 'Alone I heard Their Voices'.**

 **Dedicated to Ruehoos for giving me the idea of writing about the aftermath of 'Alone I Heard Their Voices'.**

He was lying there. Just… lying there. The image wouldn't leave Lance's head. It wasn't him, it couldn't be him. He didn't deserve this. Yet there he was, just _lying_ there.

Keith. It was Keith who was there, motionless in Shiro's arms as the Black Lion returned the team to the castle. It was Keith's suit that was stained with blood and dirt. It was Keith's pulse that couldn't be found.

Allura was in the lion hanger, waiting anxiously as the paladins exited Black. No words were spoken as Shiro, overcome by emotion, froze halfway between the princess and his lion, choking back sobs. Allura's hands covered her face, eyes searching the team for an explanation. Surely it was an overreaction.

She screamed at Coran to get a pod ready; nobody moved. Allura called for Coran again, her cries becoming more desperate. There had to be something they could do, someway to save their friend! Her shouts bordered on hysterical as Coran slowly entered the room, disbelief on his face.

"Coran!" Allura's tear filled eyes lit up. "Coran, ready a pod immediately!" Coran didn't move, eyes widening in horror. "Coran! That is an order!" Allura's hopeful exterior began to crumble as she realized that no one was moving to get Keith help. "No…" The princess whispered, the truth setting in.

"Princess," Coran took a cautious step closer, lightly taking Allura's hand in his own.

"No!" She jerked out of his grip. She turned to face the team, taking in their grief-stricken faces. "No… no! No, no, no!" Allura dissolved into tears, sinking to the floor. Coran held her as she cried, her sobs echoing through the hanger.

Shiro couldn't take it. His legs gave out beneath him and he dropped to the floor. Shiro couldn't stop staring at the boy in his arms; Keith's eyes were half open, as if the violet orbs were still seeing, still searching for a rescue that wouldn't come in time. Blood had dried over the half of his face where his helmet broke and the visor shattered- shards of glass were still poking out of his skin. His leg was twisted the wrong direction, his arm limp.

Keith was dead.

Metal creaked as the red lion came to life, eyes blazing. Hunk's heart stopped- Red would kill them. She had just as much of a tempor as Keith if not a worse one.

Red lowered her head to where Shiro sat gripping Keith in his arms tightly. As softly as the robot cat could, she nuzzled her nose into Keith's hair, low purring sounds emitting from her mouth.

Keith was unresponsive.

The red lion tried again, nuzzling harder, purrs turing into a desperate whine. As the seconds ticked past, Red got more and more frantic, only to be met with nothing. When she reached out for her mental bond with Keith, it was strong enough that everyone heard her message: _come back._

The other lions moved to comfort Red as the lion got nothing from her dead paladin. Whirrs and clicks came from Red, and Hunk realized she was crying. The red lion was crying for another a cub she couldn't protect.

The lions of Voltron sat behind her and tipped their heads back, roaring sorrowfully to the sky. The red lion laid beside Shiro before she too let out a heartbroken roar to honor the fallen paladin. The sound broke Hunk's heart, and a new wave of tears flooded his eyes.

 _Gone?_ Buttercup reached out to Hunk with the word. "Gone…" Hunk hiccuped in agreement.

(::)(::)(::)(::)(::)(::)(::)(::)(::)(::)

Pidge couldn't sleep that night, knowing that their next destination would be where they said goodbye to Keith for good.

'Requiem aeternam'. That's what the planet was called. Allura had explained, through tears, that it was among one of the greatest honors in the universe to be buried on the planet. It was exclusively reserved for beings of high respect and honor.

"And there is no greater honor," Allura's voice broke. "Than dying as a paladin of Voltron."

A small part of Pidge wanted to check every grave on the planet to ensure neither her brother nor father were buried there. The other, larger part of her wondered if she'd be able to handle the loss of another family member.

She sat awake in bed for hours, replaying what had happened in her mind again and again. The fall, the search. The hours the spent searching for Keith's body after his line went dead.

Pidge felt so useless; she wasn't as strong or as fast as the others. She couldn't dig through debris to find Keith. All she could do was make the signal to his helmet strong so they could hear his dying words in better quality.

Pidge stuffed her face in her pillow and screeched. Her soul could no longer bear the pain in silence and she found herself screaming Keith's name again and again, louder and louder, until her own crying overpowered the sound of the lions' heartbroken wailing.

Coran could hear the young girl, the sound hurting his very soul. Allura was concentrating- perhaps too hard- on piloting the ship, and he snuck away unnoticed. Pidge jumped at the sound of light knocking on her bedroom door. Before she could ask who it was, Coran was walking into the room and collecting in her arms, running a hand lightly over her hair.

At first, Pidge tried to push away. Coran's touch, however, was so sincere and so caring that she melted into his hug, burying her face in his chest.

"He's gone," She choked out. "He's gone, Coran. He's just gone! I-"

"It's okay," Coran soothed.

"I was too late!" Pidge cried. "If I had just been a little faster-"

"I doubt there's much you could have done." Coran said honestly. Pidge sobbed harder. Coran stayed with her all night, holding her close and shushing her as she cried. Eventually Pidge fell asleep and Coran left so she could rest. She would need her strength for the day to come.

(::)(::)(::)(::)(::)(::)(::)(::)(::)(::)(::)(::)(::)

Allura didn't want to wake the team- or what remained of it. Requiem aeternam wasn't a planet anymore. After so many years of war, the planet was gone -destroyed- a nebula in it's place.

"There's something beautiful about it," Coran said softly.

"This is the result of a massacre." Allura's voice was hard. "The aftermath of war. There's nothing 'beautiful' about this."

"Is this Requiem aeternam?" Hunk asked softly, padding into the room. His eyes were puffy and red from crying.

"No." said Allura flatly. "The planet is gone. We'll have to find somewhere else-"

"Somewhere else?"

"Yes."

"How long will that take?"

"I don't know, Hunk!" Allura snapped. "Days, weeks? Where are we supposed to take him now? Maybe we should take him back home-"

" _This_ is his home." Hunk looked at the ground with watery eyes. Allura sucked in a breath, trying to remain composed.

"Hunk is right." The three turned to see Shiro leaning heavily in the doorway.

"Shiro, you can't expect us to keep him on the ship forever." Allura reasoned.

"I don't. The castle isn't his home." Shiro gestured out the window. "Space is."

"So you expect me to just shoot him out there?"

Pidge poked her head into the room. "Not sure if this is relevant, but has anyone asked Lance?"

Lance.

His name hung heavily in the air. He had been the one to find Keith. He had been the one who screamed for hours on end, digging and digging until his gloves were gone and his hands were bloody. He had been the one that Hunk had to carry back to the Black lion, because as soon as he realized Keith was gone, Lance was too.

"Has anyone seen him?" She asked. She took the groups silence as a 'no'.

"I think he's still with the lions." Hunk said quietly. Everyone nodded, understanding the unspoken subtext; if Lance was with the lions, he was with Keith.

"He should be part of this discussion." Said Coran. Shiro and Allura nodded in agreement.

Red hadn't moved since they left the hanger. She was laying on the floor, nose inches away from Keith's head. Every now and then she would give him a hopeful nudge, hoping that he would sit up and swat her away.

He didn't.

Lance was leaning up against Red, still wearing his blood and dirt stained armor. He had pulled Keith into his lap and was running his fingers through that stupid mullet, his face blank. Red's eyes flashed when the group approached, but she didn't move. It was as if the lion had lost fighting spirit.

"Lance?" Hunk crouched next to his friend, placing a hand on his shoulder. Lance didn't even blink. "Lance, we… we need to talk about…" Hunk's voice broke, and he found himself unable to continue.

"It's time." Shiro said simply, standing a few feet in front of Lance. Lance paused, his fingers still caught in Keith's dark hair. When he didn't answer, Shiro bent down and collected Keith in his arms, gently prying him from Lance's grip. The blue paladin hardly moved.

Pidge and Hunk carefully helped Lance to his feet, guiding him towards the door. He moved robotically, his face still frozen and eyes distant.

Red began to cry as the team left the room, quietly at first, but it grew louder as they retreated further into the castle. She never moved from her place on the floor.

Shiro set Keith lightly on the floor once they re-entered the control room. Hunk and Pidge slowly lowered Lance into a chair, standing close by in case he needed further assistance.

Allura exhaled shakily. "What should we do?"

"I vote space." Shiro said.

Pidge wrinkled her nose. "But what about Earth? Don't we owe it to him to give him a human funeral?"

"He isn't- _wasn't_ \- entirely human." Coran pointed out softly.

"And didn't he hate Earth?" Hunk added. "Does he even have family there?"

Shiro shook his head. "No, not that I know of."

"We can still give him an Earthen burial." Said Allura. "We must simply choose an appropriate planet-" she stopped as Lance stood up, walking to the nearest window and staring out. "Lance?"

"It's red." Lance said quietly. The team exchanged a worried glance, confused. "The nebula." Lance explained. "It's red." He turned to his teammates, eyes watering. "That's his color."

"Lance-"

"All Keith ever wanted to do was come here, to be able to see this. It was his dream." Lance returned his gaze to the nebula, his bottom lip quivering. "He's never going to get to see this."

Pidge took a deep breath. She couldn't handle standing there, listening to Lance talk about what Keith was never going to get to do.

"We're looking at Keith's dream." Lance continued, voice shaking. "We can't let his dream die by burying him on some random planet. He doesn't belong underground."

"What are you saying, Lance?" Allura asked carefully.

"I'm saying that he belongs out there. Free. That's all he ever wanted- we owe that to him. I owe that to him."

No one could argue.

Allura and Coran prepared a coffin out of an old pod. The plan was to release the pod into the nebula where, as Lance said, Keith could be free. The nebula, that had been unnamed until that point, was to be named after him.

Shiro spent hours cleaning and polishing Keith's armor- he would still wear it as a memorial to his paladin status. Pidge programmed the pod to ward against anyone who dared to mess with it. Hunk engraved Keith name into the glass door, as well as a message to all visitors about who Keith was, and the sacrifices he had made.

Lance carefully extracted the glass from Keith's face, wiping away the blood and grime still left. The team could hear him whispering to Keith, taunting him as if he would answer.

"You're lucky I don't cut your stupid mullet off…" Lance said with a bitter laugh, running his fingers through Keith's hair. "I guess it wouldn't be as fun without you here to yell at me for it."

"You'd love this view," Hunk heard his say as he returned the clean armor. "All the stars and colors. Better than any sunset I've ever seen."

Lance was still at Keith's side when things were done. Keith didn't look nearly as beat up as before- if it weren't for his broken leg and paper white skin he easily could've been mistaken as sleeping.

"Lance," Shiro rested a hand on the blue paladins shoulder. "It's time."

Allura stood stoic at the head of Keith's coffin. Despite her watery eyes and shaking voice, she delivered the customary Altain funeral speech. The paladins didn't understand a word she was saying, but the emotion she put behind her words brought them to tears.

Shiro's garrison training kicked in as Allura spoke, his back straightening and arm rising in a salute. He kept his eyes forward because he knew that if he looked down at Keith one more time, he'd break down.

Hunk's headband was being twisted around in his hands. He couldn't think of anything to say, or anything to do. There was a weight in his heart that he had never felt before and he wasn't sure how to handle it.

Pidge cried as Allura finished her speech. She wasn't ready to say goodbye. There was so much she wanted to tell Keith- that she admired him, that she looked up to him. He had become another brother to her- a very hot headed, emo, temperamental brother- but a brother all the same.

Lance cried out as Allura moved to release the coffin into space. "Wait! Wait I just…" He pulled Keith's Galra blade from behind his back. "He's always had it. He would sleep with it under his pillow. I just… He can't leave without it."

Blinking back tears Allura gave Lance a sad smile, opening the coffin and letting Lance gently place the weapon in Keith's limp hand. Lance pressed his forehead to Keith's, whispering what sounded like a prayer in spanish before standing back up, stepping away so the coffin could close.

"Everybody ready?"

The paladins watched, teary eyed as Coran released the airlock, sending Keith's coffin floating into the nebula.

Shiro lowered his salute, giving Keith the garrison pilot farewell he deserved.

Hunk let the weight in his chest drop, openly sobbing.

Pidge felt her heart stop as she once again watched a brother lose his life to space.

Lance leaned into the glass window, watching as Keith faded into the stars where he belonged. He pressed a hand against the glass, a tear falling from his chin onto the floor. "Welcome home, mullet head."


End file.
